Property & Real Estate IT Support Adelaide
You move other people's money. That makes you a target.
You move other people's money — rent, outgoings, deposits, settlement funds — between parties who mostly deal by email, which is exactly the transaction attackers try to redirect. Add the years of leases and reconciliations you must be able to produce on request, and buildings that each carry their own network. Otaris secures your money path, keeps your records retrievable, and treats every property you hold as part of one managed estate.
In short
What does IT support for a property or real estate business include?
Otaris supports commercial and industrial property owners, real estate and asset managers, and self-storage operators across Adelaide. That means the tenancy, leasing and trust-accounting systems you run on, hardened email to stop payment redirection, records retention you can rely on at audit or dispute, and consistent segmented networks across every building — all under Essential Eight controls. Adelaide-based since 2006.
Trust accounting · tenant data · building systems
Eight questions to ask the IT provider you already have
Property businesses hold trust money and run buildings, and the two risks look nothing alike. Trust accounting fraud arrives by email and takes minutes. Building systems — access control, CCTV, lifts, air conditioning — get installed once by a contractor, connected to whatever network was nearest, and then patched by nobody. Both are your name on the letterhead.
So don't take our word for anything. These eight questions come straight from the Essential Eight — the standard published by the Australian Signals Directorate, which we didn't write and don't own. Each one can only be answered with a document. Ask them, and notice which answers arrive as a report and which arrive as a reassurance.
- 01
Patch applications
Re-Leased, Console or PropertyMe and the trust accounting module — which were patched last month?
A real answer looks like: A dated patch report per application, with exceptions named.
- 02
Patch operating systems
The site office PCs across the portfolio — how many are on an unsupported OS, and who is counting?
A real answer looks like: A device inventory covering every site office, with OS versions and support dates.
- 03
Multi-factor authentication
Who can reach trust accounting remotely with only a password?
A real answer looks like: A conditional access report listing every account, its factor, and every exclusion by name.
- 04
Restrict admin privileges
Who can change a landlord's or a tenant's bank details, and does a second person have to approve it?
A real answer looks like: A named list of who can edit bank details, and whether dual approval is enforced in the software.
- 05
Application control
A site manager installs a free CCTV viewer to check a camera. Does it run?
A real answer looks like: The application control policy, its enforcement mode, and last month's blocked-execution log.
- 06
Restrict Office macros
The outgoings reconciliation workbook runs on macros. What permits it and blocks an inbound one?
A real answer looks like: The macro policy showing default-block, with the reconciliation file's trusted location documented.
- 07
User application hardening
The browsers used for tenancy portals and land titles — what has been hardened, and on which machines?
A real answer looks like: The hardening baseline applied and the date of the last drift check.
- 08
Regular backups
If trust accounting were encrypted the night before a disbursement run, when did you last prove a restore?
A real answer looks like: A restore test report with a date and a measured duration.
And one more, just for your industry
Are the building management, CCTV and lift systems on their own network, or the same one as the office — and who patches them?
A real answer looks like: A per-building network diagram, and a named party accountable for patching each system.
Asked them? Here's what to do with the answers.
A provider doing the work sends a report. One who isn't sends a sentence. If the answers came back vague, that is itself an answer — and you now know which questions to ask again in writing.
To check the same ground against the government standard yourself, the scorecard further down this page takes about two minutes. You keep the result, and there is no form to fill in.
Or ask us — we do this every week.
The risk in property is the payment, not the paperwork
Property businesses run on email. Agents, owners, tenants, solicitors, trades and accountants all exchange instructions and bank details that way, often between parties who have never met. It is an efficient way to work and an ideal environment for someone to insert themselves and change one line of an invoice.
Underneath that sits an obligation problem. Money held on behalf of others carries record-keeping and audit requirements, and disputes over outgoings or condition arrive years after the fact. If the answer lives in a former employee's mailbox, you do not really have it.
And a portfolio spreads it all out. Each building has its own connectivity, its own cameras and access control, sometimes tenant Wi-Fi on the same link as the systems that run the site. Managed one at a time, that becomes unmanageable.
“If a changed bank detail can reach your team unchallenged, nothing else you spend on security matters much.”
The IT challenges we solve for property businesses
Payment redirection is aimed straight at you
Property moves large sums between parties who mostly deal by email — rent, outgoings, settlement funds, deposits. That is the exact shape of transaction attackers target with a changed bank detail. We harden the mailbox, verify identity properly and make interception far harder.
Records you must be able to produce
Leases, condition reports, outgoings reconciliations, correspondence — years of it, and the moment it matters is the moment it is disputed. We keep it retained, backed up and actually retrievable rather than scattered across mailboxes and someone's desktop.
Trust accounting sits under real obligations
Money held on behalf of others carries audit and record-keeping requirements that do not bend. We keep the systems around it controlled, access-restricted and logged, so an audit is a retrieval exercise rather than a reconstruction.
Every building is a small site
A portfolio is not one office — it is many buildings, each with a network, cameras, access control, maybe tenant Wi-Fi and building services. We standardise the build so an added property is a repeat, not a project.
Tenants on your network
Shared connectivity, tenant Wi-Fi and building systems all touching one link is a risk most operators inherit rather than choose. We segment them so a tenant's problem stays the tenant's problem.
Small teams, high-value transactions
Property teams are usually lean relative to the money moving through them, which makes them attractive and under-resourced at the same time. Essential Eight controls close that gap without adding headcount.
Getting your portfolio sorted is simple
Schedule a call
Talk to someone who has supported multi-site property portfolios. No sales pitch — a conversation about where your risk and your admin actually sit.
We assess the portfolio and build a roadmap
We review your systems, buildings, email security and records, check you against the Essential Eight, and give you a plan that starts with the money-movement risk.
We manage it, so you can manage the property
Monitoring, security, everyday support and a single standard applied to every building you own or manage.
Everything a property business needs, under one partner
Property & tenancy systems
The management, leasing and trust-accounting platforms your business runs on, kept available and secure.
Email & invoice-fraud protection
Controls aimed squarely at payment redirection — the attack this industry actually loses money to.
Cloud & server infrastructure
On-site, cloud or hybrid where each makes sense, engineered so no single building is a point of failure.
Multi-building networks
Consistent, segmented networks across every property, with tenant and building services kept apart.
Records retention & tested recovery
Backups you can prove work, covering the documents you are obliged to be able to produce.
Essential Eight uplift
MFA, application control, patching and monitoring across the whole team, not just head office.
Property systems we support
We support the platforms a property business runs on, and the buildings underneath them, as one environment rather than two separate problems.
- Property & tenancy management platforms
- Trust accounting systems
- Xero & MYOB
- Microsoft 365
- Building access control & CCTV
- Tenant & site Wi-Fi
- Self-storage access systems
A local team property operators trust
Otaris has been looking after Australian businesses since 2006 — that's 20+ years in IT. We're Adelaide-based with Australia-wide coverage, and we explain everything in plain language. You'll never be handed off to an overseas call centre.
Client story — Karidis Corporation (46 staff · 13 sites · Adelaide & Melbourne)
Karidis Corporation holds a diversified Adelaide property portfolio — commercial and industrial property alongside hotels, car parking and retirement living. Following a malware incident in 2023, Otaris rebuilt the environment rather than patching it: Windows 7 endpoints and ageing file and Exchange servers gave way to 50+ Windows 11 devices, AWS virtual desktops and Microsoft 365, with an SD-WAN replacing expensive Layer 2 links between sites.
The result is 100% Essential Eight compliance and 99.99% uptime across 13 sites in two states — one managed estate, with the same controls whether the building is an office, a hotel or a car park.
Read the Karidis Corporation case study- 20+ years in IT
- 13-site portfolio supported
- 99.99% uptime delivered
- Adelaide-based
- Essential Eight aligned
- One provider for every building
Imagine a portfolio that behaves like one business
Picture a changed bank detail that gets stopped rather than paid. A lease or an outgoings reconciliation from four years ago produced in minutes. Every building on the same network standard, with tenants kept off your systems. And a new property that joins the estate as a known build rather than a fresh negotiation with three vendors.
That's the difference between owning buildings and operating a portfolio.
“Strengthening your digital confidence.”
Solutions for your industry
The services we most often deploy for property & real estate.
- Managed
Infrastructure & Cloud Management
Private cloud on AWS and Azure, onsite servers and advanced networking — managed end-to-end.
Learn more - Cyber
Cybersecurity
Essential Eight and ISO/IEC 27001 aligned protection across every system we deliver.
Learn more - Managed
Microsoft 365
Productivity, collaboration and security in one all-in-one Microsoft 365 Business Premium solution.
Learn more
Frequently asked questions
No name · No email · No follow-up
Check your Essential Eight score
Eight questions, about two minutes. You’ll come out with a plain list of what’s holding up, what isn’t, and what it takes to fix each gap. Some of it you’ll be able to do yourself. Some of it honestly needs a hand — and if you’d rather not deal with any of it, it’s all covered in our support plans.
The list at the end is yours to keep and act on — that part is free, and there is nothing to sign for it. If you would rather we took some or all of it on, ask on chat and we will tell you what is involved.
The Essential Eight is an Australian Government standard, and every small business should be able to measure itself against it without paying for the privilege or handing over their details. There’s no form here, so whether we ever speak is your call.
One question for each of the Essential Eight, all at Maturity Level 1 — the baseline ASD says every small business should meet. About two minutes.
answered you are here still to answer· eight groups, one per Essential Eight strategy · click any square to jump to it
Does anyone send you a patch report each month or on request, showing what got updated and what didn't?
Choose one of these four answersor press 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 to answer
Not sure what this question is asking? Ask on chat and we’ll explain what the standard means.
The two questions everybody asks last
What does it cost — and what happens to our week if we switch?
Fair questions, so here are both answers on one page. Our plans are the same three Essential Eight maturity levels you just read about — you aren't choosing between vague bundles, you're choosing how far up the Government's own standard you want to be.
- Most popular
Fortress
$139/user/month
Essential Eight · Maturity Level 1
✓ Compliant · all 8 of 8 controls at ML1
Full compliance with the Australian Government's Essential Eight baseline — all eight strategies, implemented, managed and documented so you can prove it.
Where most businesses land: unlimited support for everything, full Essential Eight compliance, and human threat hunters watching around the clock.
Support, unlimited
Security, complete
Knox
$179/user/month
Essential Eight · Maturity Level 2
✓ Compliant · all 8 of 8 controls at ML2
Maturity Level 2 — stronger protection for businesses adversaries deliberately target, and the level expected for government and defence work.
Businesses handling sensitive data or working with government, defence and regulated industries — where compliance isn't optional.
Everything in Fortress, plus
Compliance & data
Advanced threat defence
Titan
$219/user/month
Essential Eight · Maturity Level 3
✓ Compliant · all 8 of 8 controls at ML3
Maturity Level 3 — the highest level, built to withstand determined, well-resourced, targeted attackers. For those who can't afford "almost."
Chosen by organisations where a breach would be catastrophic — defence primes, health, finance and legal. The standard for those who can't afford "almost."
Everything in Knox, plus
Maximum protection · Maturity Level 3
Minimum 5 users on all plans.Add-ons available on every plan: Microsoft Copilot AI · Azure & AWS virtual servers.
And the part you're actually worried about
Nearly every property business we speak to raises the same real objection, and it isn't price — it's the fortnight of chaos they assume comes with changing providers. There isn't one. The work happens before anything changes, and changing providers is our problem to manage, not yours to survive.
- 04
Behind-the-Scenes Setup
We prepare head office and every site office in parallel, including trust accounting permissions and the building systems — access control, CCTV, lifts — that a contractor installed and nobody has patched since.
The buildings get looked at, not just the desks.
- 05
The Seamless Switchover
We schedule the cutover clear of a disbursement run, and trust accounting moves with its full audit trail. Bank-detail change controls go on at the same time.
Every disbursement goes out on time and reconciles.
- 06
Your Team Gets Comfortable
Property managers, trust accounting and site staff each get their own handover, and everyone learns the bank-detail rule.
Trust money is protected by process, not just software.
Protect the money path and the records behind it.
Book your free Essential Eight Cyber Security Scorecard and we'll show you exactly where your property business stands — email security, records, buildings and all — and what to fix first. No jargon, no obligation.
- A plain-English Essential Eight Cyber Security Scorecard for your business
- Where you stand on payment-redirection risk and records retention
- A clear plan covering head office and every building you manage